More about: Louvre Museum Tickets and Tours
There are many ways to describe the Louvre: you can talk about its impressive building, the Tuileries Gardens, its glass pyramid, its collection of Egyptian art, or Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. I recommend buying tickets in advance to avoid waiting in line for hours at the door. These are the best options you can find online:

Louvre Museum Tickets
Skip the lines and get into the Louvre at the best price
Perfect if you want to lose yourself in the endless corridors and galleries of the Louvre at your own pace, without having to join an organised group but without wasting time queuing at the ticket office.
If you want to visit the Louvre on your own, I recommend buying your ticket in advance online, as you will be able to enter the museum whenever you want, spend as much time as you like and stop to admire the works that interest you most. Don't forget to pick up a free map of the museum at the entrance if you want to quickly locate the major works in each room: the map is designed precisely for this purpose and will be very useful for finding your way around.
The audio guide is also highly recommended. It costs five euros at the entrance, is available in several languages and is often included in many ticket packages.
Why I like this option: this option allows you to avoid endless queues, visit the museum for as long as you like and decide for yourself which works you want to stop and look at.
Recommended if... you want to enjoy the museum at your own pace, without fixed schedules or guided groups.
How to buy tickets for the Louvre

If you want to visit the Louvre, you can go to Hellotickets and buy your Louvre ticket quickly and easily. All you have to do is select the day and time you want to visit when you make your reservation.
You can also buy your tickets at the ticket office, but in this case, you will have to wait in long queues and run the risk of not getting a ticket.
You can also book a guided tour of the Louvre Museum without queuing, a highly recommended option because, for a little extra money, you can explore the museum with the explanations of an expert guide.
Louvre ticket prices

The price of tickets to the Louvre on Hellotickets, which include skip-the-line access and admission to temporary exhibitions, is around £35.
You also have the option of booking a combined experience that includes admission to the Louvre and a cruise on the Seine, in which case the cost starts at £24.
Or you can even book a guided tour with no queues, accompanied by a professional guide who will explain the different collections you will enjoy throughout the tour.
Enjoy a guided tour of the Louvre

In my opinion, booking a guided tour is the ideal way to enjoy the Louvre, as there is so much to see that it is the best way to take in the immensity of this museum in the shortest possible time. What's more, you'll skip the queues at the entrance.
And thanks to an expert guide who will accompany you throughout the tour, you'll get all the details about the main works, such as the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and Liberty Leading the People. This way, you'll be sure to see the main works and not miss a thing. And, of course, if you want to continue the tour on your own once you've finished, you can do so at your own pace.
Visit the Louvre and take a stroll along the Seine, a double experience

Enjoy Paris to the fullest with two of the most popular experiences: a cruise on the Seine and a visit to the Louvre. What more could you ask for?
On your tour of the Seine, you will see incredible monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, the Alexandre III Bridge, the Musée d'Orsay and Notre Dame Cathedral from a unique mobile observatory.
And, of course, with admission to the Louvre Museum, you'll be amazed by some of the world's most famous works of art, paintings and sculptures, such as Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. More than 5,500 paintings and 2,000 sculptures by artists that you can see at your own pace. What's more, you'll avoid the queues at the entrance, which are usually quite busy.
Comparison of tickets and visits to the Louvre Museum
To make things clearer, here is a brief summary of the different options available if you want to visit the Louvre Museum.
- Louvre Museum Tickets
- From £20
- At your own pace
- Access to temporary exhibitions
- No audio guide
- Book
- Louvre Museum Tickets and Optional Seine River Cruise
- From £23
- At your own pace
- Combined ticket with optional cruise on the Seine
- No audio guide
- Book
- Louvre Museum Tickets with introduction to the Mona Lisa
- From £57
- At your own pace
- Introduction to the Mona Lisa with host
- With guide for the introduction
- Book
- Louvre Museum Guided Visit
- From £60
- 2 hours 30 min
- Guided tour with expert guide in English or Spanish
- With guide
- Book
Buy tickets for the Louvre at the ticket office

If you buy your tickets for the Louvre at the ticket office, you can save two or three euros (the surcharge for online purchases), but you will have to queue for a long time and run the risk of the tickets being sold out for the day and time you want to visit the museum.
To avoid this, if you do decide to buy your tickets at the ticket office, try to go first thing in the morning (it opens at 9 a.m.) and don't choose a public holiday to visit the museum. With this option, the audio guide is extra and costs around five euros.
I'll also take this opportunity to leave you an article with tips for visiting the Louvre with children.
Practical tips for visiting the Louvre

- When to go: the museum is open almost every day of the year except Tuesdays. Any time is a good time to visit this impressive collection, but in the afternoon, especially on Wednesdays and Fridays when it is open until almost 10 pm, and around lunchtime, there are usually fewer visitors. Check all the information about opening hours here.
- How to get there: the Louvre is in the centre of Paris. The entrance is through the glass pyramid and you can also access it directly from the "Palais Royal Musée du Louvre" metro stop on line 1. If you have any questions, check out the post on how to get to the Louvre.
- Duration of the visit: seeing the Louvre in less than three hours doesn't make sense unless you choose to book a guided tour focusing on specific works. I explain the different types here. An in-depth visit will probably take you a whole day. For more information, visit the post on how long it takes to see the Louvre.
- Free admission: certain groups are admitted free of charge to the Louvre, such as children under 18, EU citizens under 25, art teachers and disabled visitors with a companion. In addition, there are certain days and times when admission is free for everyone, such as the first Sunday of the month and 14 July (Bastille Day) from 6 p.m. Even if you have free admission, you must reserve a day and time slot on the museum's official website. Check here for more details on prices.
- Where to eat: there is a café and restaurant inside the Louvre Museum. This is the best option if you are visiting the museum. However, it will be a little more difficult to find places to eat in the surrounding area. If you would like more details, read the post on where to eat near the Louvre.
- Visit the shop: I highly recommend visiting the shop, although I warn you that you will want to buy everything, so if you are on a tight budget, think twice.
- How to behave: the usual rules for large museums apply at the Louvre. Photography is allowed, but you must not touch the works of art, you must remain relatively quiet and you cannot bring food inside.
The Louvre with children

If you are visiting the museum with children, make sure they won't get tired and run around the corridors and rooms. A great option is to take a tour of the Louvre adapted for children; this will encourage their interest in art and they will enjoy the museum much more.
I recommend getting an audio guide so that everyone in the family can explore the museum at their own pace, focusing on the topics that interest them most.
The most important works to see at the Louvre

Personally, I have never been to a museum where I knew so many works of art as in the Louvre. If this is the most visited museum in Europe, it is not only because it is a delight for art lovers, but also because the general visitor will recognise a significant number of the works housed in the museum.
Choosing what to see is more difficult in the Louvre than in any other museum (there are 35,000 works of art inside from almost every artistic period and from various sources). However (and bearing in mind some important omissions), if we had to make a list of the best known, it would look something like this:
- Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa: this is the museum's star attraction. However, before you get "disappointed", I should tell you that you won't be able to see it up close; the painting is protected by a security barrier several metres high because it has been the target of several attacks. Even from a distance, it is worth seeing as it is the star attraction of the Renaissance and one of the most legendary paintings in existence.
- Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People: the painting depicts the popular uprising against the crown in Paris in 1830, which ended with the deposition of the last Bourbon to reign in France: Charles X. In this work, liberty is represented allegorically as a woman in the centre of the painting wielding a flag.
- The Venus de Milo: one of the most representative statues of the Hellenistic period of Greek sculpture. This female figure has not always been an armless torso, but it is unknown how she 'lost' them and there are even several theories about how they were originally represented. The fact is that the perfection of the forms is well worth a few minutes of contemplation.
- The Wedding at Cana by Veronese: one of Veronese's most famous paintings. It depicts the first miracle of Jesus Christ; during a wedding, the Gospel of St. John says that he turned water into wine. The lighting of the painting and the detail of its characters deserve several minutes of your attention.
- The Victory of Samothrace: one of the largest statues you will find in the museum. It depicts the Greek goddess Nike, goddess of victory. Although its aesthetics (the sculpture has no head) have been criticised by many, it is considered a key work of sculpture, and you only have to look at the detail of its folds to see why.
- The Code of Hammurabi: the most emblematic piece of Mesopotamian art. It contains the civil laws in force during the reign of Hammurabi, making it an essential find for learning more about the culture of this historical period.
Here is a very interesting post if you would like to learn more about these works.
If you are interested in visiting the Louvre, you may also be interested in

The Louvre is so big and famous that it easily overshadows other museums in Paris. After seeing all the works in the Louvre, you might wonder: is there more? Yes, there is. Paris is full of museums, and each one is worth a visit.
My favourites are the Musée d'Orsay (a real gem) and the Pompidou Centre for Contemporary Art, but the list of options is much longer. If you want to find out more, you can read this article about The 17 Best Museums in Paris